how_i_met_your_motherfandomcom-20200223-history
The Bracket
Recap Future Ted – "Kids, back when we were younger, your Uncle Marshall and I were really into college basketball. Every year, March Madness would take over the entire apartment." Marshall and Ted are working on filling in the brackets for the college basketball playoff games when the girls come into the living room and ask what they are doing. Lily asks where he got the blackboard and Marshall tells her that he found it, but Marshall recounts in his head that they stole the blackboard from Lily's room. Barney walks in and tells them that the team that they bet on just lost. Barney tells everyone that he went to the hardware store to pick up girls. He tells a girl that he helped a another girl and when Barney returns after getting something, she slaps him. This also happened at the dog store and the museum; every time he returns, he gets slapped. Barney can't figure out what is going on. Future Ted – "But the next night got even weirder." Barney and Lily meet up at the bar and when Barney walks off to get something, a girl approaches Lily and tells her that he will say whatever just to get into her pants. Lily is upset and tells Barney, but they can't find her and Barney can't figure out who it is. Barney tries to think about who it could be and goes through hundreds of girls in his mind and he gets overloaded. Barney complains to everyone and Ted suggests that he looks at the book of girls that he has slept with. Barney brings everyone to see his book and Lily can't find who the girl is. Barney gets an idea that he put the girls on the bracket chart that Marshall and Ted have and he suggests that they discuss the girls and figure out who it is. No one wants to do it, but Barney brought beer. They all argue about who has the most reason to hate him and sabotage him. After several hours, they have come to the final four and decide to contact all of the women. Lily and Barney first visit Meg, the girl that he slept with in the first apartment that Marshall and Lily bought. Barney wants to hide from her, but Lily makes him apologize to her. When Meg sees them, she runs up to Barney and kisses him. When Lily breaks them up, she tells Barney that she isn't the one, but he has to apologize to her, but he quickly walks off in the other direction. The next girl, Anna, got lied to that Barney was Ted. She tells him that she has a website, tedmosbyisajerk.com. Barney stands on a table and tells the whole restaurant that Ted Mosby is a jerk and to go to the website. Future Ted – "And that little Web site went on to get 400,000 hits. Thanks, Barney." The next girl is Kate, whom Barney lied to and had sex with her twice and used different names. She immediately attacks him and Lily makes sure to get a picture. The next, and last girl, is Holly. Barney recalls the story of leaving her in the woods by herself and a bear comes after her. Lily gripes at him and tells him that it is the worst thing he has ever done. Holly answers the door and meets Mark, her fiancé. They invite Barney and Lily in the house and have coffee. Barney says that that was the worst Fourth of July, but Mark reminds Holly that they started dating in June. Lily gripes at Barney when they get back to the apartment that he never apologized to any of the women. Barney doesn't think that is bad, but what he does think is bad is that he doesn't know who the stalker is. Robin suggests that they set her up and Robin will be the girl that Barney is hitting on. Robin sets up the scene that Lily will be at the jukebox, the guys will be at the booth having a normal conversation, and Robin will walk up and get hit on by Barney. Robin asks what he tells them to get them to have sex with him and he tells her and she gets a little turned on. When Robin sees someone coming in, Barney walks off to the bathroom and the girl approaches Robin. Barney returns from the bathroom and looks on the bracket to find her, but she isn't there and he doesn't recognize her at all. When she walks off, Barney intercepts her and tells her that he doesn't recognize her and he apologizes to her. Lily walks up and tells her that she isn't the girl and the girls walks away. Lily takes a picture and names it "Barney's Redemption". There is a montage of what Barney has done to girls over the years. Future Ted – "Eventually Barney did figure out who the mysterious girl was. But more on that later." Barney writes in his blog on the computer: "Sometimes we search for one thing but discover another. Even though I didn't find the mystery girl…I did find out something very important about myself…I'm awesome." A girl interrupts him and asks him to come back to bed with her since he has to go in outer space tomorrow. Continuity *In , Ted points out that Barney always uses 83 when he makes up a statistic, and here, a flashback shows him telling a girl at an art museum that he has 83% visibility while pretending to be blind to seduce her. *Lily mentions Barney using Ted's name to hook up with Anna, as seen in , and Barney mentions abandoning Meg in the Dowisetrepla apartment after sleeping with her, as seen in . *One of the girls the gang argues about is "Fake Proposal Girl". Barney mentions having pretended to propose to get women to sleep with him in . *While Barney says that he would never demean the women he slept "by putting them on some tawdry list", he mentions showing Ted his "list" in . *Madeleine Albright appears in the montange of Barney's past hook-ups, is listed on the bracket, and Lily notices there being a "government official" in his scrapbook. Barney mentions sleeping with her in . *Barney only shows signs of guilt when he thinks he forgot about a girl he slept with. In the Yips, he loses his confidence and identity when he finds out the woman he lost his virginity to forgot about sleeping with him. Future References (Contains Spoilers) *Barney finally confronts his saboteur (Abby, whom he slept with in ) in . *Barney is again seen with a list of his past sexual partners in . *Ted points out that Robin always laughs when she lies. She does this again in , , and . Also, when Ted asks if she has ever fallen asleep eating ribs, she giggles when answering "no", and she is seen doing this while on sleep medication in . *When Lily suggests that Barney's lies are failing due to karma, Barney responds that "Karma" is stripping in Vegas, and that they're "good". In , Quinn is revealed to be a stripper at the Lusty Leopard under the name "Karma". She seems to be a different Karma from the one Barney mentions here though, as, in that episode, he appears to have never met her before. *In , Barney reveals that his hook-up with Madeleine Albright did not occur while she was Secretary of State. Gallery Memorable Quotes Notes and Trivia Goofs and Errors *In , Barney is said to never have taken a bad photo (i.e. a photo without his signature pose). However, Lily is able to take multiple pictures of Barney in compromising situations in this episode for her scrapbook. *Barney says that he would never put the girls he's slept with on a list, but in he shows Ted a list of 200 women he's slept with. Also in Barney said that Ted already have watched Barney's list and Ted is terrified. *Barney goes to Anna to apologise to her, but according to Lily's story a girl came to her and said "that guy you were talking to, Barney Stinson..." which means the targeted girl knew Barney's real name while Anna (as shown in Ted Mosby: Architect) thought (and still thinks) his name is Ted. Barney and Lily knew this so they should have crossed her off the list because it couldn't possibly have been her. However, Lily likely withheld that the blonde had mentioned his name so she could watch him apologize to the girls. Or, more strongly, as seen by their reaction to what she says as they encounter, they thought that by that point she already knew Barney's real name. *When Barney tries to seduce Robin, he got the glass on his right hand but when he's touching Robin the glass is in the left hand. Allusions and Outside References *The final scene is a parody of the conclusion of every episode of Doogie Howser, MD. Doogie (the character that brought fame to Neil Patrick Harris), at the end of every episode, updated his blog with the same musical theme heard here. *Near the beginning of the episode, Barney is trying to remember the name of Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. *Oprah Winfrey appears in the bracket as one of Barney's conquests. She is the last name in the 4th region and loses in the first round. *When going through the women he slept with, one of the pictures shows Madeleine Albright, ex U.S Secretary of State, who Barney has already mentioned in . Music *One Shining Moment - David Barrett Other Notes *The website www.tedmosbyisajerk.com actually exists and contains the letter Barney left for Anna in , posters from the fake Ted Mosby's porn movies from , and caricatures of different fates that would be too good for Ted Mosby. Guests *April Bowlby - Meg * - Anna * - Mark * - Holly *Ken Barnett Colton Dunn * - Janitor * - Charna *Katy Savoy - Karen *Kathy Uyen - Julia *Hallie Lambert - Kate *Tess Alexandra Parker - Mysterious Woman Reception Omar G at gave the episode an A+.http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/how_i_met_your_mother/the_final_four_2.php This was Television Without Pity's highest rating for Season 3. gave the episode a B rating. http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-bracket,12898/ Michelle Zoromski of gave the episode a 7.6 out of 10 rating. http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/04/02/how-i-met-your-mother-the-final-four-review Category:Episodes Category:Season 3 References External Links * Category:Episodes Category:Season 3